Embryo: a small shapeless mass of identical, undifferentiated stem cells. I wouldn't consider this a "human life" in any sense. Sure, it has the potential to grow into a human, but that doesn't make it a person by the wildest stretch of the imagination.
A large proportion of embryos fail to successfully attach themselves to the womb. Their parents never even knew they existed. Are you saddened by the billions of human lives lost this way?
I thought it was slightly suspicious that the journalist seemed to establish that no-one could possibly have her address except Yahoo and Borders, but didn't investigate the matter further. Of course, everyone knows that a Hotmail account is a spam magnet, whether you use it or not. And this is posted on the MSNBC site... (:
When I started university, I had some trouble getting my Linux system connected to the student accomodation network. The network card (a second-hand ISA card without PnP) was detected and identified alright, but I kept on getting errors about `IRQ line not detected'. So I used a kernel command line to specify the standard interrupt for network cards (10, I think). Result: the driver seemed to load OK, but no traffic was coming in or out through the card.
In desparation, I looked at the relevant kernel source code. It turned out that although I had specified IRQ10, the card was still not responding on that interrupt (I was a bit pissed off that no warnings had been displayed to that effect). Examining the card more closely, I discovered that it was jumpered to `JPLESS', presumably causing it to sleep until woken up by some MS-DOS program. Rejumpered it to `10', and hey presto, it worked.
---
The next day, my flatmate asked me to try and get his brand new PCI/PnP network card working on Windows. The following events transpired:
Run setup program on disk which came with card
Reboot(1), Windows hangs during boot with black screen
Reboot(2) to `safe mode', remove vendor drivers
Reboot(3) successfully, Windows detects the card and installs Microsoft drivers from the Win95 CD
Reboot(4) successfully, but still no network access. Looking in `device manager' reveals that the drivers been automatically disabled by Windows. No warnings, no explanations, no indication of device conflicts. I re-enable the drivers, and Windows tells me to...
Reboot(5), and the drivers are still disabled. I remove them,
reboot(6), and try installing the vendor drivers manually instead of using the setup program.
Reboot(7), Windows hangs during boot with black screen
etc......
Before you say this was just a freak occurrence, let me point out that the same thing happened with the replacement card recommended by the university. This was autumn 2001. He still hasn't got a network connection, despite the best efforts of the university technicians.
---
The moral of the story: it's better to make information available than to insult the user's intelligence by hiding it. I was able to get my card working because I had source code. He still hasn't got his card working because Windows refuses to explain why the hell it keeps automatically disabling his hardware.
This is the result of the Dummies/Idiots/Retards/Braindead culture which has grown up around Windows. I now try to avoid helping Windows users with their computer problems. Can you blame me?
Thanks for this good advice! Of course, most programmers outside of computer graphics (or other heavy maths applications) will never need to go beyond step 3. But if speed is important, this is certainly the way to do it.
Mod parent up, it's the most useful comment in this thread so far.
Well, I'm proud to say that I gave up Microsoft EULAs 2 years ago. But I can't find any reference to them being able to change the license without notice in any of the EULAs on their website (all of which are pretty much identical). Unlike some software companies, they don't even reserve the right to terminate the license, unless you have broken it.
So, please let us see the quote from the Win2K license which says Microsoft can change the license at any time.
it is biding forever and they can change it at will without notice for any reason.
NO. Wrong. Read that again and you'll see how stupid it sounds. What sort of an agreement allows one of the parties to change it whenever they want to?
On the other hand, some EULAs say that the software company can terminate the agreement at any time, for any or no reason (thus revoking your right to use the software). But that's a very different situation.
Before I gave up Microsoft products altogether, I used to have a pirated copy of Visual C++ on my computer. Given that I was a penniless high-school student at the time, is there any chance that I would have gone out and bought VC++ from a shop at its full price? None at all. Result: Microsoft lost nothing, and I gained a knowledge of C.
The BSA's estimate of $4G lost through piracy is absolute BS(tm). They have only lost any money if the `pirates' would have bought the software legally, given no other choice. Their real losses are probably less than $1G, because most piracy happens in places (Russia, Bulgaria, China, India) where very few individuals earn enough to buy MS products at Western market prices.
Yes, but it's all rather confusing. Read this thread in the Linux kernel mailing list if you're really interested. (WARNING: You won't understand any of it unless you know how the x86 virtual memory mechanism works.)
In fact, the PIII and successors have a 36-bit addressing extension, allowing them to use up to 64GB of physical memory. You can still only access 4GB at a time, but that's all dealt with in the OS kernel.
You seem to assume that some explanation is required for life on earth (because of its complexity, specialisation, adaptiveness, etc). Your preferred explanation is "God". "God" - a supernatural force of immense intelligence and power. "God" - a creative engineering genius with the knowledge and skill to create not only the global ecosystem of this planet, but the entire universe. "God" - a concept which has appeared (in some form) in the literature of every culture in the history of humanity, without ever being supported by any direct or indirect evidence whatsoever.
You think life on Earth requires an explanation? Then this "God" requires a thousand times as much explaining. And you simply assume its existence, as if that was sufficient? And you accuse evolutionists of resting on faith??
Go and climb a tree.
NB: Strange as it may seem, I'm not actually a rabid atheist. I have no objection to the concept of God per se. I just get annoyed at people who think that their personal religious beliefs are a valid foundation for a scientific theory.
We're talking about hard-wired mobile devices here. They can't be reprogrammed, so they'll end up being hostile to all of their users, restricting what every user can do regardless of whether he wants to become a customer of theirs or not.
I understand a musician needs a beer or a pizza from time to time. I also understand
he/she does her stuff primarily for their own satisfaction. Making money off it is a welcome side effect.
Needless to say, as far as the music industry is concerned, they put money in, they get music out, and they sell that music under whatever conditions provide them with as much profit as possible. Unfortunately, the most profitable music is unlikely to be the best music. And those musicians who don't make massive profits for the industry are screwed even worse than the music consumer. (Do you like being called a "consumer"? Well, the music industry are trying to redefine musicians as "hired workers" and thus obtain ALL legal control over their music.)
Someone suggested that we just stop buying their music. I couldn't agree more, but I shouldn't need to point out that the music industry doesn't make most of its profit out of the/. readership. As long as the world's sheep (sorry, consumers) continue to feed the music machine, the music machine will continue to have enough money to feed the lawmaking machine, and thus obtain even control over even more aspects of our lives which have nothing to do with them.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) urges you to take action to protect consumers against unfair and
deceptive trade practices raised by Microsoft Corporation?s Passport service and related ?Wallet,? ?Kids Passport,?
?Hailstorm,? and ?.Net Services.?
The infestation of that sentence with question marks makes it clear that it was written with MSWord's "smart quotes" feature, which messes up all non-ASCII characters for all non-Windows users. This can lead to some sentences being transformed into interesting questions...
Disclaimer: Word?, Excel? and Windows? XP? are registered trademarks of Microsoft? Corporation. ?Copyright 2002. All rights reversed.
Re:Hibernation comments are missing the point
on
UNIX Process Cryogenics?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
You mean like: run for four hours, force a core dump by pressing Ctrl-\, and then re-run the last five minutes as many times as you want?
ZeoSync Corporation has significantly changed the history of compression theory in that we are now capable of introducing a multi-dimensional variable that allows for the intentional randomizing of patterned information sequences, and the encoding of single-bit-variances. This process allows for the transmission of only accelerated sequences without the traditional transmission of non-reducible sequences. This improvement allows for the transmission of hundreds of times the information across the same limited bandwidth channels and storage devices.
This is accomplished, by utilisation of existing and proven state of the art technologies, combining novel features and
innovative assembly techniques.
The credibility of the system is definitively established and can be interpreted and demonstrated as being "the practical
application of accepted techniques".
There are no stages in the operation of this invention that require any constituent component to perform at anything
other than that being, within its capability or in accordance with its specification.
All the parts for this invention are in practical and productive everyday use. The methodology technique is
accomplished by the innovative application in logical sequence of specifically selected constituent components whose
performance compliment each other and function in co-operation.
Attainment is determined by the systematic mathematical application in the defined mode, of the accurately selected
operational segments.
In reality the achievement of this invention adheres strictly with known, accepted and proven physics principles. It is
emphasised there are no new discoveries disproving accepted physics laws. To reiterate there are no physics heresies,
no physics contradictions and no ambiguous claims.
Wait a minute... I've just got past the horrible grammar, and there's NOTHING in that description which is not true of my computer!
Conclusion: Mr "Jasker" has invented a computer... 50 years too late.
Using a combination of C, fold, shell and grep, I can confirm that this (27,000,001) is correct.
This is a harder problem than you might think, but it's not helped by the idiots who can't even understand the question and try to add the numbers 1 to 1,000,000.
General purpose lossless compression formats like.zip,.gz and.bz2 look for recurring bit patterns in the data. They are therefore good for compressing text, executable code and low-color images. They are not so good at compressing photographic-quality images or audio, because 2 sections of a CD or a photograph which sound/look identical can and will have very different bit patterns.
Hence people tend to use lossy compression methods like jpeg and mp3 for these types of data. But there is no reason why someone with enough sound-processing knowledge couldn't produce a lossless audio-compression method. The choice is between 20-50% compression, zero degradation, high CPU load and 70-90% compression, slight degradation, moderate CPU load. Depends on what you want.
Er... have you ever actually visited Project Gutenberg? It only offers books which have fallen into the public domain, which means, in practice, books older than about 1923. You certainly won't find any Douglas Adams books there.
"Modification, reverse engineering and/or maintainance of the Car is strictly forbidden. The bonnet of the Car may only be opened by Microsoft or their authorised mechanics..."
Followed by a PR and lobbying offensive aimed at educating the public that modifying your own car is wrong, it's STEALING, and it's only done by evil communist criminals.
Of course, this will lead to the construction of computers whose BIOS is completely GPL'd, making it illegal for any proprietary software to be run on them. At last the dream of Adolf Stallman to produce a purely free computer will become a reality! VE VILL EXPUNGE ALL EVIL NON-FREE SOFTVARE FROM OUR MACHINES, UND REALIZE ZE DREAM OF A MASTER RACE OF PURE FREE SOFTVARE VHICH VILL DOMINATE ZE VORLD!! HEIL LINUX!!!!
I would also point out to the/. Linux users that without intellectual property protecion the GPL would not be enforcable.
You don't get it, do you? The GPL was created to subvert copyright from the inside: it uses the current copyright laws to bring about the state of affairs many programmers would like to live in. The authors of GPL'd software would like to donate their work to the public domain, but current copyright law would allow anyone to take that work, modify it slightly, and recopyright the derivative work for another 100 years or so.
This is what so many people miss when they accuse the GPL of being over-restrictive. The only freedom it takes away is the `freedom' to take away the freedoms of others (read that sentence again, carefully, and understand that this is a freedom which nobody should have). In an ideal world with minimal copyright law, programmers could donate their work to the PD with exactly the same effects.
I live in the UK, and I fear that the restrictions our version of the DMCA will impose on me and others when it is enacted next year will greatly outweigh the `protection' it will give, mainly to a small group of rich media companies.
Yes, but domain name disputes don't involve a contract between the plaintiff and the defendant! They are basically a minature lawsuit to hopefully avoid the hassle and expense of resorting to the real thing. In a lawsuit, of course, the arbitrator (judge) is chosen at random.
If you do want to view this as a contract, think of it as a contract between the domain name holder and ICANN. This contract, for some reason, states that anyone claiming your domain name will have their case heard by the plaintiff's choice of 4 arbiters.
Why it says this I can't imagine. It does bias things heavily in favour of the plaintiff by allowing them to choose the arbiter which tends to favour trademark holders -- WIPO.
IMHO, domain names should only be forcibly transferred if:
The holder is using the name for purposes which could reasonably cause confusion with the TM-holder, OR
The holder has no reason whatsoever to have the name, while the plaintiff has every reason, OR
The holder is not using the name for anything.
And if a forced transfer takes place, the loser should have what remains of their registration period refunded.
The firm, one of four accredited under ICANN's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), said that the policy under which
those filing complaints get to choose the arbitrator encourages businesses to seek out the referee they believe is most likely to see domain-name holders as cybersquatters. [my emphasis]
I don't believe it: the plaintiff actually gets to choose which arbitrator will try the case, and the defendant has no say! This is like the MPAA being allowed to select which `justice' they want to try their court cases.
Slashdot Mirror
A large proportion of embryos fail to successfully attach themselves to the womb. Their parents never even knew they existed. Are you saddened by the billions of human lives lost this way?
Mod parent up! He's cracked the code!
So, yesterday we had "arse digiter", and today we have "arse techniquer". This is getting a bit wierd...
In desparation, I looked at the relevant kernel source code. It turned out that although I had specified IRQ10, the card was still not responding on that interrupt (I was a bit pissed off that no warnings had been displayed to that effect). Examining the card more closely, I discovered that it was jumpered to `JPLESS', presumably causing it to sleep until woken up by some MS-DOS program. Rejumpered it to `10', and hey presto, it worked.
---
The next day, my flatmate asked me to try and get his brand new PCI/PnP network card working on Windows. The following events transpired:
Before you say this was just a freak occurrence, let me point out that the same thing happened with the replacement card recommended by the university. This was autumn 2001. He still hasn't got a network connection, despite the best efforts of the university technicians.---
The moral of the story: it's better to make information available than to insult the user's intelligence by hiding it. I was able to get my card working because I had source code. He still hasn't got his card working because Windows refuses to explain why the hell it keeps automatically disabling his hardware.
This is the result of the Dummies/Idiots/Retards/Braindead culture which has grown up around Windows. I now try to avoid helping Windows users with their computer problems. Can you blame me?
Mod parent up, it's the most useful comment in this thread so far.
So, please let us see the quote from the Win2K license which says Microsoft can change the license at any time.
On the other hand, some EULAs say that the software company can terminate the agreement at any time, for any or no reason (thus revoking your right to use the software). But that's a very different situation.
The BSA's estimate of $4G lost through piracy is absolute BS(tm). They have only lost any money if the `pirates' would have bought the software legally, given no other choice. Their real losses are probably less than $1G, because most piracy happens in places (Russia, Bulgaria, China, India) where very few individuals earn enough to buy MS products at Western market prices.
So did they pronounce their name "Arse Digiter"?? If so, they wouldn't have had much of a chance in the British market...
Yes, but it's all rather confusing. Read this thread in the Linux kernel mailing list if you're really interested. (WARNING: You won't understand any of it unless you know how the x86 virtual memory mechanism works.)
In fact, the PIII and successors have a 36-bit addressing extension, allowing them to use up to 64GB of physical memory. You can still only access 4GB at a time, but that's all dealt with in the OS kernel.
You think life on Earth requires an explanation? Then this "God" requires a thousand times as much explaining. And you simply assume its existence, as if that was sufficient? And you accuse evolutionists of resting on faith??
Go and climb a tree.
We're talking about hard-wired mobile devices here. They can't be reprogrammed, so they'll end up being hostile to all of their users, restricting what every user can do regardless of whether he wants to become a customer of theirs or not.
Someone suggested that we just stop buying their music. I couldn't agree more, but I shouldn't need to point out that the music industry doesn't make most of its profit out of the /. readership. As long as the world's sheep (sorry, consumers) continue to feed the music machine, the music machine will continue to have enough money to feed the lawmaking machine, and thus obtain even control over even more aspects of our lives which have nothing to do with them.
</PESSIMISM>
Disclaimer: Word?, Excel? and Windows? XP? are registered trademarks of Microsoft? Corporation. ?Copyright 2002. All rights reversed.
You don't need hibernation for that.
Conclusion: Mr "Jasker" has invented a computer... 50 years too late.
This is a harder problem than you might think, but it's not helped by the idiots who can't even understand the question and try to add the numbers 1 to 1,000,000.
Hence people tend to use lossy compression methods like jpeg and mp3 for these types of data. But there is no reason why someone with enough sound-processing knowledge couldn't produce a lossless audio-compression method. The choice is between 20-50% compression, zero degradation, high CPU load and 70-90% compression, slight degradation, moderate CPU load. Depends on what you want.
Er... have you ever actually visited Project Gutenberg? It only offers books which have fallen into the public domain, which means, in practice, books older than about 1923. You certainly won't find any Douglas Adams books there.
Followed by a PR and lobbying offensive aimed at educating the public that modifying your own car is wrong, it's STEALING, and it's only done by evil communist criminals.
Of course, this will lead to the construction of computers whose BIOS is completely GPL'd, making it illegal for any proprietary software to be run on them. At last the dream of Adolf Stallman to produce a purely free computer will become a reality! VE VILL EXPUNGE ALL EVIL NON-FREE SOFTVARE FROM OUR MACHINES, UND REALIZE ZE DREAM OF A MASTER RACE OF PURE FREE SOFTVARE VHICH VILL DOMINATE ZE VORLD!! HEIL LINUX!!!!
IANATroll (^:
This is what so many people miss when they accuse the GPL of being over-restrictive. The only freedom it takes away is the `freedom' to take away the freedoms of others (read that sentence again, carefully, and understand that this is a freedom which nobody should have). In an ideal world with minimal copyright law, programmers could donate their work to the PD with exactly the same effects.
I live in the UK, and I fear that the restrictions our version of the DMCA will impose on me and others when it is enacted next year will greatly outweigh the `protection' it will give, mainly to a small group of rich media companies.
If you do want to view this as a contract, think of it as a contract between the domain name holder and ICANN. This contract, for some reason, states that anyone claiming your domain name will have their case heard by the plaintiff's choice of 4 arbiters.
Why it says this I can't imagine. It does bias things heavily in favour of the plaintiff by allowing them to choose the arbiter which tends to favour trademark holders -- WIPO.
IMHO, domain names should only be forcibly transferred if:
- The holder is using the name for purposes which could reasonably cause confusion with the TM-holder, OR
- The holder has no reason whatsoever to have the name, while the plaintiff has every reason, OR
- The holder is not using the name for anything.
And if a forced transfer takes place, the loser should have what remains of their registration period refunded.Hey, wait a minute...